Intro
“Can we turn the
AC up I’m dying back here!” The Snickers Diva Commercial immediately came to my mind when
thinking about a trip during the Australian Summer. A colleague from a
former job which I’m still in contact with invited me to visit Sydney
over New Year’s Eve, and I did not want to let this opportunity pass. Since I
found China more interesting than Malaysia, I was having my stop-over in Shanghai on the way "down under".
On the flight I
got to know a lady originally from Iran growing up in Germany now living in Bonn.
We met each other because she was changing seats with my original neighbor. Since we had the same route and flights to Sydney and our Airline was
so pleasant to seat us next to each other by chance for the connecting flight Shanghai-Sydney,
we had a nice time. Apart from that, although I was prepared with ear plugs,
eye covers and sleeping pills, I wasn’t really able to catch a lot of sleep… well, it was still Economy Class.你好，中国 (Hello, China)
The stopover in Shanghai was lasting a full
day, so I was able to see the city. I was lucky. Although I saw on the airlines’ website that I had the
wrong category to be able to get a voucher for a free 2-way ticket with the
Transrapid, I thought asking can’t be wrong and it worked. So I used the
Transrapid (Maglev Train) from Pudong International Airport to a Subway Station
close to Downtown. It’s 30km but the train runs at 433km/h so it takes only a
couple of minutes (by “normal” subway I think it would take roughly one hour to reach this
station). Depending on the time of the day the speed is limited at 300km/h, you
can check the times and speeds on the station. I was a bit surprised that both
ways the train was pretty empty although the tickets are cheap, especially when
you come with tourist budget.
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| Where's my block? Team Red? Green? |
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| ...and night! |
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| Shanghai Pudong during day... |
I was also passing the Peace Hotel at the
river – some days later this place became public globally in a sad way, when on
a mass panic at New Year's Eve 36 people died and another 48 injured because there were vouchers
being thrown from the Peace Hotel to the
place and the vouchers were looking a bit like 100$ Notes. I think for
everybody who had ever seen a 100$ Note it would be easy to see that it’s just
vouchers, so education actually does safe lives…
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| Tea Party Fellows |
The Tea Time was in a very small house in
an even smaller room which I wouldn’t even be able to recognize as shop or
restaurant or anything similar. It included eight different sorts of tea
prepared in special way which means some are just being poured normally some
are poured over a picture of a certain Dragon into the cup (the Dragon gives it
a special energy), some are being drunk from cups others from glasses and for
every tea the young lady (approx. 18years) explained what this sort stands for and
what effect it has on your health, mentality, thoughts and so on. The tea smelled
and tasted good and the “show” was really interesting. The lady said her family
is doing this business since the time of the Chinese Emperors. Of course it
could also only be marketing but the store was outside the touristic area, really
hard to find, was to me also not looking like such a store or restaurant and
the fact that she could only speak Chinese led me to the result that this
wasn’t a tourist place at all - at least not for non-Chinese people. But anyway…I liked the idea! Since I had my two companions
guiding me to that place and translating for me, I think I got a real piece of
Chinese tradition.
After everything was finished the lady vanished.
We found here again when we left the house, she was just vomiting on the
street! She said she was sick but she needed to work since her parents are not
here…she didn’t let us feel at any time that something was wrong with her, and
she really took the time for us for the “show”…I guess getting sick days in
China is not comparable to Germany…
Walking through the city I saw that everybody just spits on the street without any effort to hide it, I found it disgusting but well.. different country different culture... I also had to pass several security checks on my way, but they are all nuts! The guys are sometime not even looking at the screen and I’ve seen people just rushing through without getting checked…
Walking through the city I saw that everybody just spits on the street without any effort to hide it, I found it disgusting but well.. different country different culture... I also had to pass several security checks on my way, but they are all nuts! The guys are sometime not even looking at the screen and I’ve seen people just rushing through without getting checked…
Originally I wanted to visit a real Chinese
Temple with its’ surrounding garden etc., but the “Tea Party” took too much
time so I headed back to the Airport, this time with 433km/h - nice!
When you
are awaiting your flight at Pudong Airport, please go to one of these little
restaurants directly opposite of the departure gates if you’re hungry. It’s
really good and costs nothing! I went to the little Korean restaurant next to
“Books and Magazines” store at gate 22, and – after finishing my first plate (pic, 22Yen - 3€, Ham & Cheese Croissant @ Starbucks 26 Yen) –
decided to get another soup and skip the airplane meals (which was the right
decision as I saw later). And a closing cultural hint for this chapter… you can
and should slurp while eating your soup, otherwise it means you don’t like it…
When you
are awaiting your flight at Pudong Airport, please go to one of these little
restaurants directly opposite of the departure gates if you’re hungry. It’s
really good and costs nothing! I went to the little Korean restaurant next to
“Books and Magazines” store at gate 22, and – after finishing my first plate (pic, 22Yen - 3€, Ham & Cheese Croissant @ Starbucks 26 Yen) –
decided to get another soup and skip the airplane meals (which was the right
decision as I saw later). And a closing cultural hint for this chapter… you can
and should slurp while eating your soup, otherwise it means you don’t like it… |
| For the fashion conscious... |
Aussie – Sydney
Getting to know the City
Arriving at Sydney Kingsford Smith Airport
Sunday Morning 28th December I was picked up by my former colleague.
Since she was only moving to Sydney but is originally coming from Turkey I got
to know some Turkish Food and stuff as well – I’ll come back on that later.
This very first day was really relaxed we just went to Balmain Peninsula and
Warf which is close to her place and easy to reach on foot. We chilled there
and I got a first glimpse of the Harbor and Skyline waiting for more to come.
Our first priority on the next day was to
get (mine) and finish (hers) New Years’ Eve dress so we went Downtown - or “CBD” (Central Business District) as
it’s called in Sydney. There are plenty of shops and you can find lots of stuff including the Aussie “UggBoots” – if you like them. They must have something special since
they are sold everywhere even in summer ;). After finishing that we went up
Westfield Tower for having a Panorama View of the City, also a good opportunity
to get an overview if it’s your first visit to a city. I later found out that we
better should have spent the money for having a drink in the Café beneath the
Panorama Deck providing the same view but whatever…
Later that day we also visited Lavender Bay
and Milsons Point - during hot days there is quite a chilly place beneath the Harbor Bridge, and also great in the evening since (Fastfood-) Restaurants are very close and also a Liquor Store (“BWS”) to provide all types of Alcohol although
drinking publicly is prohibited at all times, but my colleague told me that on
Milsons Point they never had any Problems. The liquor stores are also called as
Bottle-0 and, they close at 10 pm. So if you want to go Clubbing Downtown this
maybe a good spot to start into the evening with a great view.
In general I would recommend Surry Hills, Newtown
or even Balmain area since there are some nice Bars and Clubs to spend the evening,
but as I'll explain later - don’t expect German opening hours…
Taronga Zoo was our next stop on December
30th. In the end it’s a Zoo. Unfortunately many of the animals
especially the bigger ones seem to be organized in some labor union, since they
were not “working” but just sleeping or even not visible at all while we were there... I’m
glad that even Australian and African Inhabitants found the weather too hot for
any greater activities. Leaving the thousands of families with their millions of
kids of all ages (at least it felt like that) behind we went up north to the
Jewish Neighborhood Mosman with its’ Balmoral Beach. The fact that it’s harder
to reach by Public Transports makes it quite a reserved place, especially
compared to Bondi Beach…
In general people
are lovely and will always try to help you out. In the end you need to know asking hey how are
you how’s it going etc. is not meant to get real deep dive thoughts or
feelings, and by the time you can get the feeling that everybody at every time
of the day in every position and everywhere just feels good, great, awesome –
or at least “not too bad”, but that’s part of the culture, you can like it or
not.
We went Downtown by bus and our hilarious "Ho Ho Ho Happy New Year" driver and his fun announcements, I had to take a picture with him.
Some days before
31st they put signs throughout the area telling that certain roads
are closed from 2pm, Buses are not driving, alcohol free areas and whatever. But
although there are really lots of tourists in the city on that day, it was way
easier to get to the Harbor area as expected, so no need to stress out you can
arrive at 6-8pm some places even later and still get a good spot. Before
entering the Opera Bar we visited the Löwenbrau located on the Rocks…global
export of Bavarian Culture also present in Sydney. After some time I found out
that many of the waiters are actually Germans…good to know in case you’re there
the first time and have no local contacts which can help you out…
The event at the
Opera Bar itself was good. The food included was enough and really good (oysters,
king prawns etc.) drinks and pricing as expected at such a place. The view
is great, although I would recommend to go a bit more outside like on Macquirie’s Chair to get a full overview over the harbor. I found it a bit tricky to see
all fireworks from the Opera Bar, since they are going up on different places
throughout the harbor, so I concentrated mostly on the bridge. There is a short fireworks going at 9 pm for
families with small kids also. 
To sum it up fireworks was lasting 12 minutes and the best part is right at the end when you have the feeling everything is
blowing up and the harbor is really illuminated. To be honest, I expected a bit
more, but I guess the media also plays their role here by blowing expectations
to a very high level….
I was surprised
to see that many young guests at the Opera Bar. Afterwards there was a Party
lasting until 3am, I found it very short (it’s New Year’s Eve!) but that’s Aussie
style, it’s an early country, you shouldn’t expect the same Nightlife as in Germany,
generally Bars close officially by midnight but I wouldn’t count on that, so
you should start your evening earlier compared to Germany. There are also many
Parties starting during the Day like 4 or 6pm and last until Midnight that’s
it.
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| Nice view and always a breeze... |
The next Day I
joined a friend which is currently doing his Studies in Melbourne to visit Blue
Mountains. It’s a Natural Reservation approximately 2 hours’ drive outside of
Sydney. Wikipedia tells you why they are called Blue Mountains, and google probably provides better pics than I can because on our
visit they were very blue since it was cloudy and partially raining that
day…too bad. But at least this means less sweating and less tourists so we had
a nice and chilling trip with some impressive views.
We finished the day
on a typical Aussie way with some fellow students of my friend doing….Barbeque
(“Barbie”)! On any beach, playground, parks… they have public electric grills available
which you can use for free, and they are cleaned every night. A quick stop at Woolies (Woolworths) provides you
with anything needed. Great invention, I would really love to see this in
Germany too.
If you are
planning a cheap stopover in Sydney (Backpacker-Tour, Student, whatever) please
be aware that although it’s a first world country you should lower your
expectations a bit, especially when it comes to cleanliness. From my friend who
was just coming from a trip down Australia’s east coast I got to know that
especially many apartments which you can rent look nice from outside, but not
that nice from inside. He said he felt like many of the houses appear like they
have been built in the 60s, 70s, 80s, and are used since then without getting
any bigger renovation done. Cockroaches and spiders should be considered as
normal even in more expensive regions, in the end it’s a wildlife country.
Before leaving Sydney we had another beach day at Manly Beach, accessible via ferry from Circular Quay. As I said before the northern beaches are less packed with tourists compared to Bondi and Coogee. Manly is worth a try.
Into the tropics - Cairns
I’d like to know what the Snickers-Diva would say
if they would be visiting Ayers Rock or Australian Outback in the summer, but I
wouldn’t dare to go there during this time. So we went to Cairns at the Great
Barrier Reef for some days, to experience a bit more of this countries' beautiful nature. The humidity was freaking high there by that time so the temperature feels
even more torturing, especially when the sun shines - but at least it’s always windy. We
booked our Trip with “Escape Travel”, all the activities in Cairns were booked
from them also but via “Down Under Tours”.
We did the Kuranda Scenic Railway and Skyrail. Both going through Kuranda Rainforest which is part
of the World Nature Heritage. The nature itself is worth a visit, the little
village Kuranda itself not, since its 99,9% touristic, no need to spend time
there.
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| Biological education tells me this is a...yellow fish |
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| Say "Cheeeeeesee..." |
According to the
stickers they have been awarded by TripAdvisor in 2014. I didn’t take a closer
look for what exactly, since you can find these TripAdvisor stickers quite
often. Also in Sydney I noticed them on Hotels, Bars, Ice Creams Shops and
Agencies etc. I didn’t go especially for them but what I can say is that I
never had any bad experience choosing them.
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| Can u spot the croc? |
Again here the guides were pretty relaxed and informative and the program around was interesting and good (Barbie on a camping place near the rainforest area, visit of the Mossman Gorge center with an Aboriginal presentation on how they use the forest, and what’s their ID and Visa when they’re travelling - interesting!). The drive takes quite a while from Cairns so don’t plan too much on that day because you won’t be back again before 6pm.
Cairns itself
reminded me of Mallorca with its Ballerman. Seaside is absolutely touristic. Bars and restaurants and behind you can find lots of hotels, really lots of
hotels. We had dinner only one time there, in general I would recommend to go
outside the city (many different activities possible) and don’t stay in the
city.
The last 2 days
we reserved for relaxing and meeting a school friend of mine who emigrated to
Australia after finishing school. By the time he now lives in Townsville which
is 3,5hours drive (in Aussie this is nuts) with his wife on his own 4.000
square meters ground. Since we haven’t met for probably 10 years we had a lot
to talk and remember of our former times, but also what’s going on now. It was really nice to see him again.
Sydney Closing
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| 1820 hostel: 42 Bed Room |
In Manly there’s
a Sea life where you can dive with Grey Nurse Sharks and other big fishes. You
don’t need any diving experience at all, just have in mind to book early, I
found it too late, so for me unfortunately I had no chance to do this before my
flight.
“The Star”
Casino at Darling Harbor is for the gamblers. It’s quite big and full of
Asians… Apart from that I chilled at the harbor and relaxed. Btw also
the money is quite laid back. The notes are plastic, so no worries if you
forget some bucks in your pocket, it causes no problems in the laundry (“tested”
by myself :P)
If you don’t really know where to go in the city, you can also join one of the free walking
tours. I saw them several times and they had always a group of 10 – 20 persons.
There is no fix prize; you just tip how much you want when you liked it. I
found the city itself very clean I would say even cleaner that German Cities of
a comparable size.
Because I was
living at my friends home and she was from Turkey, I also learned a bit of
Turkish culture. We had some Turkish breakfasts with Sucuk (kind of sausages),
Semet (similar to bagels), olives, different types of Turkish cheese like
Halumi and sweets like Helva. On top some eggs, feta cheese, honey… it really
fills you up for the day, especially in such a hot climate this was basically
the only bigger meal lasting for the rest of the day.
The Turkish Coffee
Story as I call it was another sneak into Turkish culture. They are served in
special coffee cups and with a glass of water. When it’s empty, you can do
fortune telling out of the coffee grounds…first turn around the cup, place your
finger on the cup and wait till it cools down. The person doing the fortune
telling lifts the cup and tells what he/she sees out of the lines the coffee
grounds painted in the cup. Then you can do a wish, and the speed on which the
coffee drop on the saucer runs down when its lifted tells how long it lasts
until the wish comes true…When you decide to get married, the family of the husband
comes to the wife’s house and asks for permission. Before permission is granted, the future
wife serves Turkish coffee, if the coffee is good which means it is
tasty and has lots of foam it means that the bride is skilled in terms of
household stuff. But the bride usually puts lots of herbs, spices especially
salt in the coffee as a tradition and the husband must drink the coffee without
making any bad gesture or comment. This means he will be happy with her no matter
what happens….
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| Hmm looks indecisive I think... |
Finishing the
blog here’s also my quick review what I missed / will miss the most:
German tab water quality: The tab water which you can get in Aussie tastes 99% chlorine
German bread: Of
course it’s a UK influenced country so you only get white bread in different
shapes unless you find a good bakery
German beer: no
need to explain this…
Banana bread:
banana cake slices, you can get them everywhere, I will miss this back here now
Useful Apps (also thanks to Denis):
Resident Advisor
– Clubs, Events
Urban Spoon –
Find Restaurants: Menus, Pics, Ratings & Reviews
Uber – Taxi
alternative
Especially
Sydney:
Trip View - Trains & busses - sometimes bus times on the apps are not
100% accurate
Transit Times-
planning your trip from x to y in Sydney
Go Sydney or
Opaler – for Opal card if you registered your opal (registering is not needed).
Opal card is needed to pay public transports, retrieve and top up at Markets,
Newslink, Train stations, Kiosks…
Sydney Airport –
flights and gates
Gumtree - rental rooms- second hand, everything
Domain – rental
rooms
Living social –
deals
You can also
download all the apps for city guides like Sydney Tours, Sydney, Culture Walks
That’s basically
it! I hope you enjoyed reading and maybe also got some useful info out of it…if
someone is planning a trip to Sydney, I still have my OPAL Card for public
transports with 25$ on it, which is good enough for a free ride from Kingsford
International Airport to Downtown by train. I’ll hand it over….for a beer of
course ;)
Cheers!
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Life advice from BBC
Cheers!
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Life advice from BBC
Wherever you are, be all there.
Jim Elliot